Shade, the Changing Girl/Wonder Woman is a unique book to say the least. It really fits with the Young Animal and Milk Wars tone of being weird and wonderful. With super beautiful art by Mirka Andolfo and a weird but lovely style of writing from Cecil Castellucci, Shade/Wonder Woman is a great part of Milk Wars and continues the event’s high standard of both writing and artwork.

So what’s it about?

The official summary reads:

“MILK WARS” part three! Shade has been split into multiple parts, each representing a different mood, all in service to the perfect and beautiful Wonder Wife. But Happy Shade is starting to sense that not all is right in Wonderland, and she finds something strange staring back at her on the other side of the looking glass! Plus, part three of the Eternity Girl backup story!

Wonder Wife doesn’t need bracers, she has oven mitts.

Tell me about it!

This issue heavily focuses on the outdated thinking that a woman should be completely subservient to her husband and revolve her life around him. The entirety of Wonder Wife’s character is to clean, cook and make everything perfect for Steve Trevor. Meanwhile, everything is wrong for Shade — she’s been split into five different parts, each related to a separate emotion. There’s a separate Shade for being happy, being sad, being angry, being scared and being in love. The primary Shade in the issue is happy, with the others still taking a large role.

The issue heavily revolves around concepts traditionally seen as “feminine” such as being very emotional and the previously mentioned qualities that you’d see in a 1950s housewife, as Wonder Wife is created to be. The overall theme of the issue though is about taking these negative and harmful stereotypes for women and breaking away from them by the end to show what Wonder Woman is really about, which is a strong, independent female character rather than the housewife who only wants to impress her husband. I’m not all that familiar with Shade (I plan to fix that soon though!) so I’m not completely sure whether her character has a similar arc inside her book, however the way she is utilized in this story is a perfect fit and definitely made me want to pick up and read the solo series of the character.

The artwork by Mirka Andolfo continues the really nice and weird art style that has been in all of the Milk Wars issues so far. It’s a beauty to look at and the colors by Marissa Louise complement the artwork completely to make it a stunning visage to look at. The layouts are great, the characters look great and just overall this is a very nice looking issue.

Shade, the Changing Girl/Wonder Woman Special #1

Is it good?

Shade/Wonder Woman is a great story that addresses traditional gender roles of women while also saying that they aren't a good thing.

The writing by Cecil Castellucci is fantastic and makes me want to read the original Shade series.

The artwork by Mirka Andolfo is incredibly nice to look at, with the coloring by Marissa Louise making them even better.

The themes addressed in the book are great with the Young Animal weird and wonderful twist.